Asian Movie Reviews

The Yellow Sea (2010)

Gu-nam is an immigrant living in China with a job as a taxi driver but he spends all of his wages at a gambling den in order to pay off his debts that have built up since his pretty wife fled to South Korea. With his debt growing and with some hoodlums after him for not paying them back, a local crime boss Myun-ga offers Gu-nam a chance to settle everything but to do so he must travel to Seoul in South Korea to kill somebody on his behalf. He’s reluctant at first but seeing as this is an opportunity to track down his errant wife he takes up the offer. He has a number of days to carry out his task, find his wife and he must cut the person’s finger off as proof that he’s successfully completed the murder. Gu-nam once in Seoul checks out where his target is living and what time he goes off to bed before planning the murder carefully. On the night he hopes to kill the man, he finds a rival gang has already beaten him to it but still he goes ahead and cuts the man’s finger off before fleeing. The police after seeing some CCTV footage name him their prime suspect and hope to capture him but Gu-nam has another problem as well as the rival gang also want to track him down. With so many obstacles in his path, will Gu-nam be able to find his wife and manage to get back home to China safely?

Coming from Na Hong-jin who directed the brilliant The Chaser movie is this awesome and expertly crafted thriller. It’s good to see that he’s managed to maintain the high standards in that movie and woven another gripping storyline which is full of brutal hardcore violence involving knives. The movie is broken down into two parts: the first deals with the grimy and depressing background of Gu-nam and why he’s forced to take Myun-ga’s job. Gu-nam is a man you’re not sure which side of the fence he’s sitting on – is he a decent man or a nasty person? But even if the viewer questions his dodgy beliefs he’s still someone you root for in the movie especially when he is betrayed. Whilst the first part is important for us to know what kind of a man Gu-nam is and the circumstances for taking on the killing job, it’s after he travels to Seoul and sets on working out his plan to assassinate the man that the excitement and suspense for the viewer begins. It’s a movie that starts out slow enough but builds up very nicely to an incredible finale. The pacing is perfect and you will be left on the edge of your seat when Gu-nam’s well laid plans go awry through no fault of his own. It’s just that other people also have their eye on Gu-nam’s target and beat him to the punch.

There’s no shortage of exciting and nail-biting chase sequences to keep the viewer on the edge of their seats. The director uses hand-held camcorders to put you right into the heart of the action. I don’t really mind this method if it works incredibly well and the results in this movie speak for themselves but I’ve read from other movie fans that hate this technique. I’ve mentioned above that there’s some violence in this movie and I suppose I’d better warn those who hate the sight of blood should be prepared to some major bloodletting. The knife/hatchet fights that take place is incredibly violent and it doesn’t shirk from showing it in all its visceral glory. This is a very long movie. The running time is just over 2 and a half hours but because the storyline is totally engrossing and hooks you in, I doubt you’ll even notice that so much time has passed from the start of the movie to the end credits. It’s credit to the fantastic script that’s been written and the first rate directing ability of Na Hong-jin for giving the viewer such an unforgettable and rewarding experience. There’s a bit of history to this story too as Gu-nam is a Joseonjok. They’re people of Korean descent who live in China and they suffer all kinds of abuse due to their feeling of not belonging and unwanted by Korean people. This ill feeling against the Joseonjok people by the Koreans is allegedly on the rise. And for those wishing to know about the title of the movie – it describes the stretch of ocean between Eastern China and the Western Korean peninsula that Gu-nam travels on to his mission.

The cast for the movie is excellent. If you’ve seen The Chaser you’ll see that two of its stars have reunited with the director for this movie although they’ve switched good guy/bad guy roles this time round. Ha Jung-woo is superb as Gu-nam who is rather a tragic figure. A man out of his depth as things go pear-shaped with the authorities and the villains out to get him so he has to use his ingenuity in order to survive. Kim Yun-seok also gives a wonderful performance as the larger than life crime boss Myun-ga who also knows how to survive against overwhelming odds.

The Yellow Sea is a masterpiece and close to being a perfect movie and it really does give the viewer a great example of the movies that have been coming out of South Korea during the past couple of years. I thoroughly enjoyed this movie and I would recommend it to anybody who likes gritty engaging thrillers. It’s well written and well acted. I look forward to seeing the next movie from Na Hong-jin. Don’t miss it.